During a kickoff in soccer, is there an offside rule?

Pete is correct on his rule interpretation but should have stopped there. Even the top English announcers and players show their ignorance of the laws of the game on a weekly basis. I've seen many videos of 2nd division games where the referees make worst decisions than the one in your game.

That said, the proper thing for the referee to have done would be to delay the restart until all of your team was back on their own half of the field. If the referee felt they were delaying excessively then he could have cautioned the player or players for delaying the restart and add time accordingly.

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BTW - Here is Law 8 - The Start and Restart of Play. The second page of the procedures of how the restart shall occur.

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/footballdevelopment/...

If you scroll through Law 12 you'll eventually come to 'Cautionable Offenses' where it lists 'delaying the restart of play.'

The kick-off is by definition a "ceremonial restart," in that the team taking the kick must wait for the referee to signal for the restart to be taken. This means that the referee must make sure everyone is positioned correctly before signalling. On a kick-off, all players must be in their respective halves and the team not taking the kick-off must also be outside the center circle. By the letter of the law, this should not happen.

Offside cannot happen in this situation because the ball must be played by a teammate, therefore the 11 players that are celebrating in the opponent's half can at most just be in an offside position.

I think the only argument that can be made here is that the referee applied advantage to the kicking team. But first off, this is completely unfair to the scoring team, as they have no way to defend. Second, Law 8 (The Start and Restart of Play) requires all players to be in their respective halves at the taking of the kick-off. Finally, according to the Advice to Referees, advantage cannot be applied here because advantage can only be applied during play. Since play has stopped for a goal and the ensuing kick-off, both teams MUST be in their respective halves.

Therefore, the referee must wait for all players to be in their respective halves before allowing the kick-off. If any team is taking too long to get ready, the referee may caution players for delaying the restart of play and may add time lost to the end of the period.

P.S. I don't know about middle school, but I assume that they use a modified version of high school rules, which are written by the NFHS. Those rules are very different than FIFA laws, as are collegiate rule books.

As long as the team kicking off has their players on their own side, the opposing team can be anywhere on the field. This is for quick resets for the exact situation you explained above. It was legal for the other team to run the ball to the center spot, kick off, and attack your goal.

The ref made no mistake. If that rule were in place, your team could slow the game down by wandering around on their side of the field. It doesn't matter your positioning on a free kick (kick off)

There isn't really an official FIFA rule for this that goes into too much detail except the rule that states "for the beginning of the first and second 45 minute halves and after every goal each team must have all of their players positioned on their defending side of the field."

So the ref you had clearly favored the other team and thought it would be okay to take advantage of your team by allowing them to quickly restart before you could get to your positions.

No, he should NEVER have allowed the kickoff. At any kickoff, all opponents must be in their half of the field. It isn't explicitly stated in the FIFA laws of the game, but it is in the FIFA interpretations. If a team takes too long to get back to their half (or leaves the field doesn't come back), the referee is empowered to caution players for delaying a restart. In the absolute worst possible cases, the referee may terminate the game, but he may not restart the game.

The ref did a terrible job if that is what happened. All players must be on the proper half of the pitch before the ball can be kicked off again.

You have to have 2 defenders (goalie included) between you and the goal to be considered "onside." However, if you have the ball you can be anywhere on the field you want to be. You are considered to be "offsides" if... ...you are involved in a play when you are positioned offsides, such as recieving a pass offsides ...you can be offsides and then comeback onsides to recieve a ball and you are still offsides A player can play you the ball into an offsides postion and have you run onto it as long as you are onsides when the ball is kicked. So...to make things short you have to have 2 defenders between you and the goal when the ball is kicked or your off.

The kick off cannot be taken while opposing players are in the other teams half. It's obvious the referee hadn't got a clue what he was doing.

By the way, you are wrong. The team kicking off can have as many players in their half of the centre circle as they wish.

I think Americans should learn the game before they start refereeing or coaching.

Enjoy the game. It's a shame that American adults, who think they know the game may spoil it for you.